


Not in Their Nature

by Blink_Blue



Series: Tumblr Prompts (MacDennis) [4]
Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Jealousy, M/M, Marriage Proposal, mentions of Mac/OC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2017-07-24
Packaged: 2018-12-06 04:38:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11593098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blink_Blue/pseuds/Blink_Blue
Summary: Dennis never expected things to be so different when he gets back to Philly.





	Not in Their Nature

“What did you just say?”

Dennis blinks dumbly. In the haze of his rage, his mind is having a hard time catching up with his mouth. But Mac had flinched at him and is currently staring with wide eyes and parted lips, so Dennis thinks it must have been really bad.

A heavy moment of silence stretches between them.

“What did you just say?” Mac whispers again.

“Uh…” Dennis stammers embarrassingly, his mind still struggling to backtrack. And then it slowly dawns on him the words that had just come out of his mouth. He stares at Mac in horror as dread fills the pit of his stomach. “Did I… did I say that out loud?” He whispers hoarsely.

“Yes, you did.”

Dennis quickly shakes his head. His self-denial is strong and unyielding. “No, no, that’s not what I meant. I-I didn’t mean that you should-”

“Oh my god!” Mac cuts him off and drops his face into his palms. “What are you  _saying_ to me right now? What the hell, Dennis?”

“I-I didn’t mean it,” Dennis stammers. “Of course I didn’t mean it!”

“You said it,” Mac hisses. “You  _just_ said-”

“No, no, I’m just… tired, that’s all.” Dennis lets out a laugh that sounds forced even to his own ears. “I’m running on like no sleep, dude. It… it just slipped. Let’s just forget about it.”

The look on Mac’s face clearly says he doesn’t believe him.

Dennis sighs softly as he shakes his head again. But the truth is hard to face, and unfortunately, it looks like he’s going to be facing it sooner rather than later. “I don’t know, man. Maybe… maybe I’m having a harder time with this than I thought.”

Mac’s expression slowly softens as he watches him.

“I… I don’t know if I can get used to this,” Dennis whispers, pained desperation filling his voice. “You know, things being so different…”

“Dennis…”

Dennis bites his lip and looks away. He never expected it to be this hard. Coming home was supposed to be the hard part. He never thought things would be so different once he got back.

“Did you mean it?” Mac eventually asks.

“No! I-maybe… I don’t know,” Dennis finally admits. He takes a shaky breath through his teeth. “I guess I thought… I always thought that if… we were to ever settle down one day… it would be with each other.”

Mac lets out a soft breath, like all the air just leaks out of his lungs. He parts his lips, then closes them again, gaping like fish. “Dennis, I… I don’t know what to say,” he finally manages.

Dennis shrugs dejectedly. “I didn’t expect to come back to find you engaged to some guy I’d never met. I just… I don’t know what to do with that. You and me, we were always… we were always you and me, you know?”

Mac swallows and slowly nods his head.

“And now, it’s going to be you and this guy… and I just… I just feel like an asshole.”

“Dennis,” Mac whispers. “You said… you said I should be marrying you.”

Dennis forces his eyes closed painfully. The words had slipped out in a moment of fury, and now it’s too late to take them back. He’s not even sure if he wants to.

“Did you mean that?” Mac asks again.

When he was younger, Dennis always imagined himself settling down one day. The years passed and it never happened. Maureen remained a stark, unpleasant reminder of his own foolish attempt to jump ahead to the happy ending.

For so long, he’d wanted someone to spend the rest of his life with. It took him too damn long to realize that that person had been by his side the entire time. For  _decades_ , Mac was that person. And when Dennis couldn’t deny it any longer, then it just plain scared him. So he did the easy, cowardly thing and he ran away.

But the emptiness got worse. A gaping hole inside him, screaming until it became nigh unbearable and Dennis knew he had made a terrible mistake.

He never really expected things to change though. For people like them… it’s not in their nature.

Then again, he never expected Mac to come out either, so maybe it was a terrible oversight on his part. Now, he would settle for things going back to the way they were before.

Mac wasn’t supposed to find someone else while he’d been gone. He wasn’t supposed to settle down without him, be happy without him, live his life capably without him. Not when Dennis had been falling to pieces in the rugged, barren country that is North Dakota.  

Dennis can’t imagine a future without Mac. And he came back expecting Mac to be as miserable as he was. Mac would welcome him with open arms, and they’d settle back into their old routine. Co-dependent, but happy. The dynamic duo.

But things are different now. And Dennis has never been good at accepting things for the way they are. Time to change.

“Yeah,” Dennis finally says with a grim nod. “Yeah, I meant it.”

A long moment passes. Dennis is about to count his losses when Mac finally speaks.

“Okay.”

He thinks he must have heard wrong. Or maybe he’s misunderstanding Mac’s meaning, because Mac just said-

“Okay,” Mac says again.

Dennis blinks in confusion. “Okay, what?”

“I’ll marry you.”

“What?” Dennis breathes. His hands tremble by his sides, aching to reach out… and it feels like he’s dreaming, so maybe he should just to check- “But… but you’re engaged-”

“You’re it for me, Dennis.” Mac says with a shrug of his shoulders. “You’re it. He was a good replacement, but… he’s not you.”

“I-I can’t even-” Dennis stutters haplessly until Mac surges forward, cradles his face in his hands, and presses their lips together. Dennis melts under his touch. He gasps against him, feeling Mac’s arm wrap around his back. He’s completely enveloped in the other man’s embrace. It’s so familiar and wonderful and perfect. And it’s everything he’s ever wanted. In this moment, he swears to himself that he’ll never let this go. He gets it now. Mac is it for him.

“Marry me,” Mac murmurs against his lips.

Dennis’ throat is too choked up to respond. He blinks through the tears blurring his vision, and he nods.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi! ([x](http://winters-blue-children.tumblr.com))


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